The invention relates to the field of sensors for measuring an ion concentration or gas concentration.
Sensors with field effect transistors (FETs) that have an ion-sensitive layer used as a gate are used to measure ion concentrations, with the potential of the layer depending on the ion concentration of a surrounding fluid or gas. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,911,873 shows such an ion-sensitive FET (ISFET). In addition, sensors with FETs are known for measuring gas concentrations, for example from U.S. Pat. No. 4,411,741, which have a gas-sensitive layer used as a gate, whose work function depends on the surrounding gas concentration.
Such sensors are generally produced from a drain and a source in a semiconductor substrate by counterdoping, and an insulating layer is grown or deposited on the substrate between the source and the drain. An ion-sensitive layer can be applied directly to this insulating layer. A gas-sensitive layer called a suspended gate FET (SGFET) can be applied at a certain distance. Alternatively, a gate can be applied to the insulator that is controlled capacitively by a gas-sensitive gate applied at a certain distance. This type of sensor is referred to as a capacitive-controlled FET (CCFET), and is described for example in German patent document DE 43 33 875 C2.
In these sensors the charge change caused by the ions to be detected or the change in work function caused by the gas molecules to be detected, is sensed as a change in the gate source voltage and the change in the drain source current caused thereby. The SGFET and CCFET have the advantage that the transducer formed from the substrate, drain, source, and insulating layer can be made independent of the sensitive layer.
A problem with these sensors is their temperature sensitivity. For example, the change in current caused by a temperature change of about 0.5 Kelvin may be greater than the signal change caused by the gas to be detected. In order to compensate for this temperature dependence, it is known that a second identical FET can be formed with a gate that does not have the gas-sensitive layer of the first gate and serves as a reference FET. One disadvantage of this arrangement is that two different gates must be applied in a small space. Another disadvantage is that the two FETs must be located relatively far apart and as a result can have different temperatures. With two different gates, the temperature pattern of the work function is generally different, so that good temperature compensation cannot take place.
Therefore, there is a need for a sensor for measuring an ion concentration or a gas concentration with reduced temperature dependence.